Needle-threader.



No. 648,029. Patented Apr. 24, |000. .1. H. H00v'En.

NEEDLE TH'nEApER. (Applicstiun led Dec. 1S, 1899.)

(No Modal.)

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THE Nonnfs PETER; ca, vnoYoMTHo. wsmNsTox, n. c.

. tion or edge view of the-device.

NITED STATES PATENT rrrcn.

JAMES H. HOOVER, OF DEOATUR, ILLINOIS.

NEEDLE-TH READER.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 648,029, dated April 24, 1900.

Application filed December 18, 1899. Serial Noi 740,641. (No model.)

To all whom t may concern.:

Be it known that I, JAMES H. HOOVER, of the city of Decatur, countyrof Macon, and

State of Illinois, have invented a certain newis defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings forming part of this specication, Figure l is a plan or face view of a combined screw-driver and needle-threader embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an eleva- Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail plan of the needle-threading structure. Fig. 4 is a section on line :c in-Fig.

3. Fig. 5 is a section on line Y inFig. 3, showing a needle in position to be threaded.

Fig. 6 is a like section showing the needle inI act of threading. v

The screw-driver blade 1, the handle 2 2., and the protecting side bars 3 and 3a of the needle-threader are all preferably formed out of a sheet-metal plate stamped and bent to form. The plate is stamped with the handlebars 2 and 2a somewhat farther apart than they are shown in the drawings and with the bars 3 and 3a forming continuations of the handle-bars and extending in the same plane therewith. Afterward the bars 3 and 3ad are turned edgewise with relation to the handle and are bent into approximately the forms shown in the drawings. A pair of guide-bars for the needle are fastened between bars 3 and 3a at their conjunction with the handle. They extend between bars 3 and 3 to near the ends thereof, and they curve outward at their ends.

into slots in the ends of the protecting sidebars. The guide-bars are elastic. v They are designated in the drawings by reference-numerals 4 and 4a, and their divergingly-bent ends are indicated by 6 and 6a. The springbars and the side bars all have undercut notches to the rear of the conjunction of bends 6 and 6a, and the hooks 5 and 5a of the springbars formed by the notches therein are curved outward, upward, and together, as shown in Fig. 4. A thin steel strip 7a is fastened between the guide-bars, and its forward end is Itis exemplified formed into a rod 7, having a hook on its end to engage the thread. The hook-rod terminates against a square shoulder of the strip 7a, and the spring-bars are slightly separated adjacent to the shoulders. A

In using the threader aneedle 8 is placed against the converging ends Gand 6a of the guide-bars, with its eye presented toward the pointed end of rod 7, and is moved gently up or down in the angle until the pointed end of the'rod engages the eye. Then the needle is slipped back on vthe rod until it strikes the shoulder of strip 7 a, and a thread 9 is laid over the guide-bars and the'protecting side bars in the notches thereof, as suggested inFig. 5.

Next'the needle is stripped 0E the hooked rod, p

'Fig. 6, after which one of the runs of thread may be pulled through the'needle in the usual way. As the needle approaches the hook of thejthreading-rod in a threading operation the curved-over hooks 5 and 5L guide the thread accurately to the threading-hook and necessitate its engagement therewith.

The free ends of the guide-bars separate to permit the needle to pass, and in doing so the ends 6 and 6a move in and are guided by the Vslots in the ends of bars 3 and 3,

n The handle of the screw-driver also forms a convenient handle for the threader, while the bars 3 and 3 permit the device to be used as a screw-driver Without injury to the-needlelthreading device.

I claiml. In aneedle-threader, the combination of a pair of notched elastic bars disposed approximately parallel and having diverging 4 ends, and a hooked threading-rod iixed between the spring-bars parallel therewith and' terminating in the angle formed by the diverging ends of the spring-bars, substantially as described.

2. In a needle-threader the combination of I a pair of notched approximately-parallel elastic bars having diverging ends and also having the hooks formed by the notches bent outward, upward and inward to form guides for the thread, anda hooked threading-rod fixed between the spring-bars parallel therewith with its point inthe angle formed by the di- IOO verging ends and its hook in advance of the guide-hooks of the sprngbars substantially as described.

3. In a need1ethreader, the combination of a handle, or body composed of the separated strips 2 and 2a and the continuation l of the conjoined strips, bars 3 and 3a formed of contnuations of the handle-strips, spring-bars 4 and 4 between the protecting-bars and a Io threading-hook 7 between the spring-bars, the

ends of the spring-bars dverging into slots in the ends of the protecting-bars and the bars being notched back of the hook of the threading-rod, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I sign my name in the I5v presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

J. H. HOOVER.

Witnesses:

W. J. CHENOWETH, Jr., J. W. REAVIs. 

